Review Blog

Aug 08 2012

Becoming Kirsty-Lee by Zenda Vecchio

Ginninderra Press, 2012. ISBN 978 1 74027 735 8.
(Age: Teens) Recommended. Becoming Kirsty-Lee is a poignant
novella by Zenda Vecchio, which explores what it's like for the main
character to survive the fallout caused by divorce. Thirteen year
old 'Kit' comes home from school one summer's day and discovers that
her father has left her family, because he has been having an affair
with a younger woman who is now pregnant.
As the second child and once her father's favourite, Kit takes this
betrayal to heart, especially the fact that he walked out as if he
was going off to a normal day of work, but never came home. She
decides that 'If you love someone, you give them parts of yourself
and that's dangerous. If they go away, they take part of you with
them.' On this basis, she withdraws into herself, believing that she
is 'the wrong type of girl', not like the beautiful, tall girls with
big eyes and whispery voices who all the boys are attracted to. She
resents her sister, Rose, and her cousins, Emma and Belinda, who she
believes have made themselves into clones of this 'right type', and
finds solace only with Ash, the young man whose face was terribly
scared in a car accident. In an effort to ignore her feelings of
grief and betrayal, she remakes herself from Kit into Kirsty-Lee,
discarding the pet nickname her father always called her and all the
memories associated with him.
Gradually, she comes to realise, through her conflict with others,
that people deal with their grief in different ways: some more
quickly, while others struggle for much longer to accept the changes
forced upon them by life. It is in these moments of connection -
with her mother, with Ash - that she discovers she is not the only
person who struggles with letting go and forgiveness, and that life
is about learning who you are within yourself, not just in relation
to the other people in your life or who have left. In that, she
finds a measure of hope to sustain her.
Simply written, in a journalistic style, Vecchio captures all the
restraint of Kirsty-Lee's reserved personality and deeply felt
hurts. The scenes are evocatively described, with sensitive insights
into human nature and the process of grieving the loss of something
precious. This book will touch all those who have experienced their
own grief and many will find it hard not to shed a tear at this
girl's story.
Kate Hall